CDC's efforts to improve traumatic brain injury surveillance

Among these recommendations, the NAS committee called for CDC to develop a plan for a comprehensive surveillance system to better quantify the incidence and outcomes of youth sports concussion among children 5 to 21 years of age. Since the release of the NAS report, CDC has taken action to address this recommendation and, in the process, develop strategies to improve traumatic brain injury (TBI) surveillance more broadly. The challenges outlined by the NAS committee with respect to producing comprehensive incidence estimates of youth sports concussion are not exclusive to youth sports concussion, but also apply to TBI surveillance overall. In this commentary, we will discuss these challenges, the process CDC has undertaken to address them and describe our plan for improving TBI and youth sports concussion surveillance.